Close
Which Book and Why helps teachers to choose the right book at the right time for young children learning to read, based on focused assessments.
Which Book and Why: Using Book Bands and book levels for guided reading in Key Stage 1 (2nd Edition) Bodman and Franklin (2021)
Building upon the theoretical grounding of guided teaching, the book demonstrates how schools and teachers can implement guided reading in Reception and Key Stage 1 classes more confidently and more effectively. The book outlines how teaching decisions need to vary according to the purpose of the lesson, choice of text, and the needs of the child by drawing together the teaching pedagogy underpinning guided reading using three different teaching purposes: demonstrating how to develop word-reading skills, reading for meaning, and reading for information.
The new edition provides updated content and also includes a brand-new section that explores how to provide the rest of the class with meaningful literacy activities while the teacher is focusing on a particular guided reading group. Accompanying online resources include support for school-based and individual teacher professional development, and interactive banded readers and decodable readers databases to support schools and teachers in choosing the most appropriate books at the right level for each group in a class. These databases will be updated regularly as new materials come onto the market.
UCL Institute of Education offers a range of opportunities for professional development in guided reading through short courses led by the authors of Which Book and Why.
Bespoke consultancy is also provided by the authors. Contact ioe.ilc@ucl.ac.uk to ask for more details.
Teachers may also be interested to read: Guiding Readers - Layers of Meaning, A handbook for teaching reading comprehension to 7-11 year-olds. Tennent, Reedy, Hobsbaum and Gamble (2016).
